ANAHEIM, Calif. — A series in one of baseball's most serene settings against a last-place team started with two days of pain before the Blue Jays’ offence finally created some room to breathe.
With a season-high eight runs Thursday, the Blue Jays overcame a four-run deficit and avoided a sweep with an 8-5 win over the Angels that brings their season record to 17-20.
Considering the frustration of the last two nights, when the typically reliable duo of Yimi Garcia and Jeff Hoffman squandered late leads, this win was bigger than your typical May victory. A sweep against the last-place Angels would have been all too costly, but instead, the Blue Jays’ losing streak ends at four.
”It's easy to let it snowball,” said manager John Schneider. “I feel like I've been saying that the whole year. But this one definitely feels good with the way the guys responded offensively. And I thought Yariel (Rodriguez) was kind of the key to the whole thing today. He was nasty.”
With two scoreless innings covering the seventh and eighth, Rodriguez was undoubtedly central to this win. Of course, the Blue Jays have had plenty of good relief pitching this year. The difference this time was that the lineup kept adding on runs.
“We had two heartbreaking losses,” centre fielder Daulton Varsho said after a three-RBI game. “But overall, this was a really good win for our team.”
Offensively, there were many contributors on Thursday, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had three hits and a walk, George Springer, who walked three times, and Ernie Clement, who hit three singles. Each contributed to a four-run sixth inning in which the Blue Jays batted around for the first time all season.
But more than anyone else, it was Varsho who drove the offence this time. He hit an RBI double in the third, singled in the fifth and hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth before hitting his third home run of the season to add a valuable insurance run in the eighth.
“It means his mechanics are in a good spot,” Schneider said. “That's really encouraging. We needed that kind of offensive profile in our lineup.”
"I think the offence will be just fine," said starter Chris Bassitt. "It's going to be really good."
Meanwhile, the bullpen followed up Bassitt with three dominant innings on a night Hoffman was unavailable and Garcia was only to be used under extreme circumstances.
First, Yariel Rodriguez stepped up with two of the most dominant innings he’s ever had in the major leagues. He struck out five of the seven hitters he faced, touching 98 m.p.h., before handing the ball over to Chad Green, who secured his first save of the season.
Afterwards, Schneider reflected on Rodriguez’s performance in big moments.
“He kind of thrives on it,” Schneider said. “So hopefully he can be that. He's had some really good outings in some big spots. And I thought that stuff ticked up a little bit tonight.”
Even if his linescore wasn’t pretty, Bassitt did his part to keep the Blue Jays in the game. The right-hander pitched into the seventh inning, and though he allowed five runs, of which four were earned, he struck out six and overcame errors by Bo Bichette and Guerrero Jr.
While the Blue Jays’ offensive struggles have kept games close and added stressful innings for the likes of Garcia and Hoffman, Bassitt said he doesn’t blame the team’s hitters for recent losses. Instead, he pointed to himself, insisting that better pitch selection and execution could have helped create the kind of comfortable leads that have been so hard to find early this season.
“So many mental mistakes where I just think we could have won at a different margin and let them back into the bullpen and just have a day off,” Bassitt said. “Just little stupid things like that just add up, and then all of a sudden you have Hoffman throwing two innings, and it's like, 'You can't really keep doing this.'”
One way or another, what the Blue Jays were doing wasn’t sustainable. Whether it’s better results from the rotation, more production from the offence or continued contributions from others in the bullpen, they need to find ways to win without Garcia and Hoffman. On Thursday, they managed just their third win of 2025 without using either pitcher.
“We’ve got to do a good job of protecting them,” Bassitt said. “And on most nights, that's between the starters and then the hitters. We’ve got to figure some things out, take some workload off.”
Offensively, though, the Blue Jays weren’t quite at full strength.
After exiting Wednesday’s game with quad tightness, second baseman Andrés Giménez was out of the starting lineup again Thursday. While the severity of the issue remains unclear, infielder Michael Stefanic was pulled from Thursday’s triple-A game so he could make his way to Seattle, where he’ll join the Blue Jays, either on their taxi squad or as a member of the active roster.
Facing a first-place Mariners team with elite pitching won't be easy, but if the Blue Jays can build on Thursday's offensive outburst, the climb back to .500 will be a little quicker and easier.
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